Late to the discussion. Even if I was one of the first voters, I hadn't time to write an opinion, as it is a difficult subject with a lot of gray zones. Even I think none of the options on the poll convince me exactly. I voted for the second, but it might as well be the third, and none of them. I'm OK with SCI/fantasy stuff, but NOT with a lot of SCI/fantasy stuff, as the game core is, in certain sense, historical (more on that latter). So, I'm OK with the Vampires addition in Secret Societies, or with the Gun Deployment Rig
, but if they start to clutter too much the game, I would find them not OK.
So, back into the "civ is a Historical game" statement: for all that I've experienced since Civ 1, civ is historical-based, but not hardcore historical. It is not a history simulator, but a board game that takes is ambience in the world history (and, dare to say,
the world... errr, I meant,
pop world history). Even if in lates games we have welcome additions to not-so-well-known cultures and parts of the history, Civ keeps taking a light approach to history, bending it as it is needed for gameplay and fun. So you can have Caesar offering you salad, or Ghandi congratulating you for your nukes. This is not historic either, as Vampires are not, or as building Macchu Picchu in Angkor Wat and Angkor Wat in Macchu Picchu is not (
Am I the only one who has this OCD regarding wonders with city names (or cities with wonder names)? ).
So, what makes a "fantasy" addition real. That in some sense, it could tie to certain real-world schemas. Religion bonuses (I've discussed this a lot here, as some could consider these "fantasy" as well) are a mechanic to identify the things the followers or organization of a religion are good at (so, if you believe in a god of the hunt, you're likely to hunt more, and get better at that). GDR are something that google could build some day, maybe it takes 50 years or 100, but future is unpredictable (take note we have now better "intercom" devices that the ones in most spaceship fictions). And vampires: as some other pointed out, even if the mytical vampire does not exist, they are a quite good meme to represent all warrior societies that believed in absorbing the enemies "soul" to get stronger. So it's fine with them.